Monday, April 18, 2011

The visibility and utility of mobile hardware, software, and connectivity continue their exponential increase. Libraries are finding it difficult to ignore the implications a perpetually connected user base has to information resources traditionally confined to desktop or laptop computers. Library users stand to benefit enormously if libraries can effectively offer their information resources in the now-ubiquitous mobile medium.

Many questions remain to be answered:

• How informed are libraries and their resource providers about what users want to do with mobile devices?

• Can individual libraries be effective in addressing mobile technologies and user demands on their own, or will development dollars be best spent on collaborative efforts or vendor-supplied services? Are such efforts and services available?

• In focusing more attention on mobile users, are libraries neglecting other user populations who do not have access to mobile devices?

• Do mobile device and service providers have any incentive to work with libraries and serve neglected populations?

These and other issues remain in flux as the library and larger information communities attempt to grasp the impact of mobile computing. Join NISO for a one-day forum at which invited speakers will explore many of the pressing questions about libraries’ interaction with and promotion of mobile technologies.

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About Me

I formerly had primary responsibilities for Collection Development, Instruction, and Reference and Research Services in Chemical and Biological Engineering; Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering; Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering; and Mechanical Engineering; Alternative Energy; Environment Sciences with the Library of Iowa State University. I was employed from April 1987 to July 2014.
Prior to joining ISU, I served as the Museum Librarian at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, and as an Assistant Librarian with the Library of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, my hometown.
I received my Master of Science degree in Library Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign in 1975, and my undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Lehman College of the City University of New York, The Bronx.